How broke were you when you got married ??

Naturally

Naturally

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I've never been married ... but I've been broke ... part of the reason I didn't marry maybe :ROFLMAO:

I think I remember my mom and dad saying they had $500 saved up when they got married in 1952.
My dad was in the Navy at the time and I've seen pay stubs from that time and he brought home $62 a month. A MONTH.
Not sure how long that $500 lasted. Dad got out of the Navy in 1954 and took some low paying jobs before getting his feet under him.
 

By todays standards we were broke. I too was in the Navy but with no savings when we were married. Our total income from base pay, housing & food allowance was $198.00 a month. That start pretty much formed our way of handling financial matters. Never separate pockets, what ever was earned after getting out of the Navy was combined and any major spending was decided by both of us.

Our way of handling finance made it possible for my wife to stop working after earning enough of the required time needed for full Soc Sec. benefits. I was able to retire early at age 54.
 
For our wedding, Hon and I both chipped in $2,000. My parents and her parents also kicked in $2,000...so for $6,000 we had a nice wedding and nobody got hurt financially. There was a party of 58.

This was in the year 2000, though. Six grand could go a little further 23 years ago.
 
As broke as a dropped glass.

Hubby had about $400 in savings and a second hand Morris Minor soft top car. I has a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica that I was paying off monthly and a china siamese cat. He was a tradie and I had just started a job as a teacher. Both only 20 years old. I was also pregnant.

60 years married last March.

It's not how you begin; it's how you finish that matters.
 
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Money was very tight back then. Went to Reno, got married on a shoestring, and pretty much lived paycheck to paycheck for some time. But looking back on it, I'm thankful for starting off life with nothing. I think it builds character, toughness, as well as appreciation for whatever you manage to build after that.

It also teaches you the value of money and finding ways to enjoy life without it. You have to get creative, work hard, and somehow you find a way to survive. Starting off with nothing is tough, but it doesn't stay that way once you learn a few life skills and become more proficient at whatever trade you are in. The first mile is the hardest.
 
He was 19, I was 17 in 1957, he was also in the Navy. don't remember what he made, but he did have 300 saved up, that went on our honeymoon.then promptly we had our first baby. He had joined what was called a 'kiddie cruise', so he was out at 21. Followed by more babies each year until there were 4. We spent a lot of years broke! However that was 66 years ago and in our more recent years after everyone grew up things got a lot easier financially!
 
We were as poor as church mice! I was an Able Seaman in the Navy, my wife a hairdresser who had to give most of her money to her mother. I had to borrow a suit, my bride her dress and our wedding party consisted of 4 people. Reception consisted of home made wine and sandwiches (that were made earlier by my bride, on command of her SIL, on her "special" day)! We had two Polaroid pictures of the day! Not an auspicious beginning, but miraculously it lasted for fifty-four years. Two years before my wife died we exchanged new wedding rings and, between the two of us, repeated our vows to each other.
 
We married soon as I saved up the $400 we needed to move into our first home...$250 for the first and last month's rent, $100 cleaning deposit, and the rest turned on our utilities.

My mom and dad gave us the living room furniture, hers gave us a bed and dresser, my grandparents gave us a dining set, and hers gave us a set of dishes for 4. Shelly got all your basic kitchen gadgets, pots and pans, flatware and linens at her bridal shower.

We felt pretty well-to-do at the time.

That was my 1st marriage. We were teenagers. When me & Michelle married, we both had a full household and our own bank accounts. We had to give stuff away.
 
We were very poor. I arrived in the USA a few days before the wedding. My husband was a student. I did find work quite rapidly once settled, but the pay was meager. We managed and once he graduated, we moved to Florida. At first, it was hard even with two paychecks because the wages were so low, but we had love and the sunshine!
My husband worked very hard and built a nice career that allowed me to stay home to raise our daughter.
Now that he retired every day is Sunday and he is enjoying it fully!
 
We were married in 1974, shortly after I graduated college. I was 21 and DW was 20. We had $1,000 in a savings account, but a student loan in multiples of our savings. We started out with 2 old used cars, and a furnished mobile home with a mortgage. Most importantly was both had jobs. We lived frugally for a number of years. We raised our daughter and paid for her college education. We made our share of financial mistakes along the way but learned from them. We are now comfortably retired for 10 years. Next August we will celebrate our 50th anniversary.
 

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